Garment waist band construction



B. B. RUBY GARMENT WAIST BAND CONSTRUCTION Jan. 12, 1965 3,164,844

Filed Sept. 12, 1962 A A A A A L A INVENTOR. BURTON B. RUBY United States Patent 3,164,844 GARMENT WAIST BA CONSTRUQ'HQN Burton B. Ruby, Edgewood, Michigan City, Ind, assignor to Jayrnanliuhy, line, Michigan City, Ind, a corporation of Indiana Fii'ed Sept. 12, 1962, Ser. No. 223,220 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-221) This invention relates'to garments provided with elastic means for adjusting the Waist band.

Mens slacks, womens skirts, mens pants, and the like, are often provided with adjustable means for con stricting the waist band. When the waist of the garment is properly adjusted to the waist of the wearer, thegarment hangs from its Waist band and doesnot need to be a nuisanceto' loosen the buckle and move the strap to adjust the waist band to a new position. -A more convenient arrangement is to provide one strap with ametallic ring or the like, and the other strap with a button and a few button holes, or a few snap fasteners, so that this strap can be passed through the ring on the other strap and fastened back upon itself in two or threepredeten' ddh igdd Patented Jan. 12, 1955 "ice FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary elevational View of a portion of the Waist band of the garment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan sectional view taken along the line 3-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of PEG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sketch of the self-adhering closure means shown at the left hand portion of FIG. 4.

In the drawing, a typical garment 1 is shown with the novel inventive combination aflixed thereto. The garment 1 has a waist band 2 and a conventional closure assembly 3, which may comprise a typical button and button hole combination. Adjusting means 4 are provided on the interior of thewaist band 2, preferably in the rearthereof opposite the conventional closure 3, so as to facilitate the adjustment of waist band size when the garment is positioned in place on the body of a user. The adjusting means preferably comprise identical components 4L and 4R which extend respectively from the rear center seam line 5 of the garment 1. For purposes of simplicity, only the component 4R would be described in detail, itbeing understood that the components 4L and (5R are identical mirror images of each other.

As shown in FIG. 3, a first garment portion 6R is looped'over at 7R and a corresponding garment portion 6L is looped over at, 7L to define the waist band 2.

mined positions. The principaldisadvantage of thisconstruction is that adjustments toany desired degree of,

exactitude cannot be made, the user being limited to the two or three predetermined positions of waistband size. In United States Patent 3,027,566 I have'disclosed-and claimed a novel means for adjusting the waist band of a garment predicated upon the provision of adjusting straps with two facings of self-adhering fabric, the said unsightly loop member may be eliminated. Additionally,

I have found that by providing the self-adhering closure on the interior of the garment Waist band in combination The center seam line 5 of the waist band 2 is provided by attachment of the looped garment portions 6R and GL as by the thread sewing designated by 8. A second garment portion '19 is overlappingly attached to the first garment portion 6R, as by the thread attachment 12,30 as to form the pocket 14 therebetween; A- screen fabric 16 lines the interior of the pocket 14 adjacent the garment portion iii in order to provide facing and structural support for the closure means to be hereinafter described.

A garment segment 18 is positioned at one extreme end of the pocket 14- by the previously described thread attachment 12, which thereby-serves to laminate the segment 1d, the screen fabric 16, the garment portion iii,

and the garment portion 6R. An elastic band 2% is received in the pocket 14 and has its end- 22 affixed tothe interior thereof, as by the thread attachment 24-. The opposite end 26 of the elastic band 26 is affixed .to an overlapping'end 32 of a strap 30, as bythe thread attachment 2%. The opposite end 34 or" the strap 3h extends from within the pocket 14 through the loop 3-6 with elastic means, such as an elastic .strap, the resilient pressure pad utilized in the waist band closure shown in the said patent may be eliminated as an unnecessary element, appmently because the inherent resiliency of the elastic strap serves to insure a positive and firm engage merit of the self-adhering closure which is operatively connected to the elastic strap. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to improve upon the waist band adjust- 'ment means shown in my prior patent, and to simpliiy and render more economical the manufacture and use embodiment of the subject invention is shown in the attached drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view in perspective of the top part of a garment, such as a pair of mens slacks or a Womans skirt embodying the subject improved .waist band combination;

provided in the garment portion 10.

The end as of the strap 3% is provided with avselfadhering facing, which may consist of one or more surfaces having the necessary adhering properties. A suitable facing is the velvet type fabric described and claimed by George de Mestral in US. Patent 2,717,437, issued September 13, 1955. The self-adhering facing 38 is designed to cooperate withthe adhering portion 49 provided in overlapping engagement on the garment interior side of the garment portion'ltl, as by the suitable thread fastenings 42 and 44. The self-adhering facing 38 preferably comprises a raised nylon pile severed to provide a very large number of resilient hooks 42. The adhering portion 46} maybe of similar material so that, when the facing 38 and the portion 4t? are pressed together, they are interjoined by the intermeshing of the hooks. However, preferably, the portion 4% comprises a multiplicity of piles which will catch on and snag the hooks 42 after the described pressing together of the facing 38 and the portion 40.

It is a characteristic of self-adhering facings of the described type .that when. pressed together they resist' sliding movement relative to eachother. Yet, they may be readily pulled apart by a peelingaction. l ioreover,

I have found that the inherent resiliency. of the elastic band 26 which imparts a shearing or sliding stress to the overlapped facing 38 and the portion 40 serves to insure a positive and firm interengagement thereof.

The operation of the novel adjusting means described herein is as follows:

The user grasps the end 34 of the strap 30 and extends the elastic band 20 to the desired degree of adjustment for the waistband 2. The end 34 is then pressed against the portion 40 so as to etiect the described interengagement of the facing 38 and the portion 40. Since the facing 38 will adhere to the portion 40 at any one of a number of overlapping positions, it is apparent that waist adjustments may be made with any desired degree of exactitude. Obviously, the exact same operation may be accomplished for the assembly 4L of the adjusting means 4.

It would be possible of course to provide one elastic band stretching through a continuous pocket common to both the assemblies 4L and 4R and achieve essentially the same adjusting results. However, it is preferred to separate the adjusting means into the two separate assemblies as described, so that sagging or pleating of the material is circumvented.

From the foregoing description it should be apparent that a self-adhering fabric closure is provided for the waistband adjustment of garments entirely on the interior thereof without any exposure of the adjusting means when the garment is positioned on the body of its user. Moreover, a minimum of bulk and of operative components is provided by the novel arrangement disclosed herein.

It should be understood that various changes and alterations may be made in the details of construction, arrangements, and materials for the various elements, without departing from the spirit and the scope of the instant invention, as defined in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

Means for adjusting the waist size of a garment, said means comprising:

a first garment portion defining a waistband;

a multilayer second garment portion disposed inwardly of said waistband and overlappingly attached to said first garment portion to define a reverse loop having a short outer leg and a longer inner leg to form a pocket between said waistband and said looped second garment portion;

said multilayer second garment portion consisting essentially of an elongated outer garment segment, a short inner garment segment and a screen fabric therebetween;

an elastic band received in said pocket and having a first end affixed to said inner garment segment at said outer leg of said loop;

a strap having a first end affixed to a second end of said elastic band at a surface away from said waistband and adjacent an inner surface of said outer leg of said loop,

said strap having a second end extending from the interior of the pocket and provided with a first adhering portion; and

a second adhering portion on the first garment portion positioned for overlapping engagement with the first adhering portion of the strap, the overlappingly engaged adhering portions being inseparable in response to a force exerted substantially perpendicular to the strap and being separable in response to a peeling action, the adhering portion of the strap being adherable with any point on the adhering portion of the first garment portion; whereby a waist adjustment may be made with any desired degree of exactitude.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,717,437 9/55 De Mestral 2872 2,999,246 9/ 61 Rowan 2-221 3,027,566 4/62 Ruby 2--221 X FOREIGN PATENTS 420,940 12/34 Great Britain.

OTHER REFERENCES Velcro Fasteners Advertisement, Vogue Pattern Book, February-March 1960 issue.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Examiner. 

